So I’ve been working on the facebook page. Mostly just updating from posts here to there and sharing awesome quotes from Sevenly and others. One new thing I’ve added is a Nail Album. It’s called Nail Tutorial Prettiness, if you want to check it out. The idea is to post finished pics from the tutorials and their corresponding links to the how-to. I also want to post idea pics to the album so that people can comment if they want a tutorial…. just a thought. Anyways, check it out and let me know what you think!

Hey peoples! For this nail tutorial, I’ve tried to make it a little more pinterest friendly so there is a longer photo at the end with all the steps :) After I had finished painting this particular design, my brothers informed me that my fingers looked like I had committed M&M murder. After another look from this perspective, I have to agree with them haha!

~~~ Ingredients ~~~

Paint Brush

Cup of Water

Paper plate to mix colors on

Clear Coat

White Acrylic

Brown Acrylic

Paper towl

~~~ Instructions ~~~

1. Paint your nails with a clear coat. This sets the base for the nail design and protects your finger nails.

2. Paint your nails the brown color of choice. As many coats as you think necessary. I have a cheaper brown paint so it took about three to get the coverage I wanted. I didn’t mix it any lighter or darker, mostly because I really love the chocolate brown color I had. Very pretty :D

3. Once that was dry, I did something a little different this time: painted my clear coat on all my nails, including the accent. I did this by accident at first. I only meant to paint 4 of my fingers, but got a little carried away and before I realized, my ring finger was completely painted. You can either clear coat them all now or skip to the next step. (Sorry I didn’t get a picture. You can tell from the next one that the other fingers are clear coated.)

4. Once the clear coat is dry (or paint if you skipped that step), it’s time for your accent nail. I mixed a little of the brown with some white to make a very nice coffee color. Then I put two stripes on my accent nail.

5. Let the paint dry and then clear coat over all the nails with exposed acrylic paint. For me, that was only my ring fingers.

6. When the clear coat is dry (I used a hair dryer to speed up the process), you can then wash your hands with soap and water to remove the excess acrylic paint from your hands. I love that it cleans up so nicely!!

Have fun with it!! I’d love to see your nail designs, so feel free to pingback, comment or even post them on my facebook page. I’m looking forward to seeing them!

Hey peoples! This is another acrylic nail art tutorial. Unfortunately I was in a hurry on Friday and didn’t make a video of my nail painting. I could have, but I would have seemed overkill to me since this one is pretty easy. It is basically two coats of gray sandwiched between two clear coats. The hardest part was mixing the color to get the one I wanted. I also didn’t use an accent nail this time. Don’t get me wrong.. I love accent nails, but it just didn’t seem business appropriate for this occasion. Plus, tomorrow I have my professional meet and greet and I didn’t want to have to redo my nails for it :)

1) First add a clear coat to your nails. This gives the acrylic something to stick to and it protects your nail. I used a clear strengthener coat. Be sure to let it dry before you move on to the next step.

2) Then it’s time to mix your colors. Add a little dot of gray (or black depending on how dark you want to go) and white to your plate. Blend them together until you get the color you want. You might want to make a good amount of this color so that you don’t run out. I ran out three times. Luckily, I’ve been color blending since my mom let me first play with paint (19-20 years ago) so I’ve had good practice on matching colors I wanted.

3) Once you’ve got the color you want, it’s time to cover your nails. Don’t worry about messes because the acrylic washes off wonderfully. It’s one of the reasons that I like acrylic nail painting soooooo much more than plain nail polish. Mistake recovery is easy!

4) Once you’ve covered your nails with one or two coats of paint, it’s time for your clear coat. This is the time to make sure your nails are the way you want them to be. Cover with a clear coat. Be careful here. I did take off a bit of the paint on Friday while clear coating. Probably because I was in a hurry to finish before the recruiting picnic. Nevertheless, make sure you don’t rub the nail polish bristles too hard because paint WILL come off. It only happened on one finger… maybe because I slowed down after that :)

5) After your clear coat has dried, wash your hands really well. This will take off the extra acrylic paint, leaving a very nice looking nail job.

~~~

I really like the gray color. It looks great with my suit and professional tops. AND it looks good with my turquoise skinny jeans. Gotta have variety :) Feel free to pin it and view the rest of my nail inspirations/tutorials on my Nailed board on pinterest.

Hey peoples! This is another acrylic nail art tutorial. I meant to post it yesterday, but I made a tankini instead ;) I’ve made two ways to view this tutorial. You can read the instructions and view pictures OR you can scroll to the end and watch the youtube video. Your choice. I like having options in tutorials so I thought I’d share the same courtesy.

1) First add a clear coat to your nails. This gives the acrylic something to stick to and it protects your nail. I used a clear strengthener coat. Be sure to let it dry before you move on to the next step. Continue reading →

This was a hard post to find a photo for. I don’t live in an urban area (Walmart and subdivisions are not urban to me), so I’ve pulled one of my pictures from a few years ago when I was living in Wales. My friends and I took a day trip to London on our day off. We did the ride the bus tour. We did the walk for forever tour. We did the take pictures everywhere thing too. The amazing thing about our one day in London was the weather. The temperature was a tad warm, but that’s to be expected in late July. The sky though was breathtaking. Blue, blue, and more blue with little white puffy clouds. GORGEOUS!! I couldn’t ask for a prettier (or more conducive to photography) day than the one we received.

The reason I picked the picture above for the challenge is because urban doesn’t mean concrete and metal to me. My favorite urban places are fully of color and vibrancy. All over London were walls of flowers. Walls of them!! So much green, pink, purple, white, blue and red everywhere. I suppose the people putting up these flowers were compensating for the gray rain that usually surrounds London. And if the flowers combined with the blue sky weren’t enough, we passed countless walls with bright graffiti on them, colorful banners hanging from the sky, and posters of bright adverts. All together, they made a very colorful urban area.

Somewhere I saw the idea of using acrylic paint on nail polish followed by a top coat to paint your nails. It was probably either pinterest or youtube. It’s probably also pinned on my Nailed board for nail art, but that’s beside the point.

The point is I tried it out last Saturday and it works!! I was so surprised!! It’s such a good idea too. Imagine the cost that can be saved. Instead of many bottles of shades of one color nail polish, all I needed were bottles of black, white, and some other color (all of which were bought for under $1… take that nail polish people!) to get every shade imaginable of that color! Oh the possibilities make me happy :) The clean up is nice too. Soap and water and all the extra color on my hands is gone. Super fast. And the paint dries quickly. And it is durable. And if I mess up mid-painting, a little water lets me start over. And it doesn’t smell as bad. And it’s pretty. And….. you get the point.

~~~ Tutorial ~~~

Materials:
Acrylic paint (there is an endless range of colors, glitter paints, glow-in-the-dark paints, neons, etc.. check them out and get creative)
Clear nail polish
Paint brush
Water (to rinse brushes)
Cloth to wipe brushes on (I use a paper towel)
Plate, paper, board, or something else to mix colors on and put paint on

Instructions:

1) First add a clear coat to your nails. This gives the acrylic something to stick to and it protects your nail. I used a clear strengthener coat. Be sure to let it dry before you move on to the next step. Continue reading →

~~~ Tutorial ~~~
First prepare to have dirty hands, but no worries because they clean up quickly!

Materials:

Water (spray bottle, sink, bucket, etc… just need a way to get it on the hair. I used my hand.)

Soft Pastels (don’t use oil pastels, as they will make your hair nasty, or sidewalk chalk since it won’t stick)

Towel (only if putting heat near someone’s face)

Straightener or Hair Dryer (flat iron works best and you just wipe it off when done)

Instructions:

1) Wet the hair completely.

2) Pick a section of hair. It is best to use small portions. Rub the pastel in a downward direction. Keep rubbing down. If you start rubbing up the hair, it will take the pastel back off. If the pastel isn’t sticking, try wetting the actual pastel stick to get more pigment. I also found that rubbing the long side of the pastel down the hair left more pigment than the small drawing end. Scroll down to see how to do ombre, if you like that look. Continue reading →

“Mirror, mirror on the wall”
Now what’s up with that?
“Who’s the fairest of them all?”
That tells me where you’re at.

If you’re stuck in front of your mirror
You know it can’t be healthy
There is a way to see life a lot clearer
And it will not be so deadly
Mirrorism is a term
It has no definition
It will make you twitch and squirm
And alter your position Continue reading →